The Northeast Large Scale Train Show returns for its third year at Eastern States Exposition.
Reminder Publishing submitted photo
WEST SPRINGFIELD — A staple event for train lovers from all over the country is returning to the Eastern States Exposition Fairgrounds on May 3 and 4.
The Amherst Railway Society is gearing up for the third year of its Northeast Large Scale Train Show, an all-encompassing celebration of large-scale railroading that covers everything from model railroads, railroad art and photography, railroad history, railroad preservation, tourist railroads and railroad artifacts.
According to Gregory Maas, director of Marketing and Communications for the Amherst Railway Society, the train show will take place at the 135,000-square-foot Better Living Center to accommodate the need for extra space.
“We basically doubled our attendance between our first and second year, and we’re hoping that we see a bump this year, too,” Maas said.
This year’s show will feature seven operating layouts of a large-scale size train, including a world record-breaking Large G-Scale layout that takes up about 20% of the Better Living Center, according to Show Director John Sacerdote.
“It is huge,” Sacerdote said. “And that [model railroad] is from the New Hampshire Garden Railway Society.”
With interest in Garden Railroading on the rise and Amherst building its own acre-sized outdoor G-scale railroad, the Amherst Railway Society decided to fill a model railroad gap in the Northeast by fostering this show.
Maas said that although their target audience is people interested in large-scale models and garden railroads, the weekend is also tailored for families looking to do something with their children.
The popular “Make and Take” programs will be back this year, allowing children under 15 to build a flatcar load on one day and decorate a building the next.
Sacerdote said that children can use all kinds of materials to build their flatcar load. At the end of the clinic, participants will be able to race their cars around a G-scale model, according to organizers.
The “decorate a building” program, meanwhile, gives children the opportunity to decorate a G-scale building using paints and other materials provided by the Amherst Railway Society.
The buildings the children decorate are theirs to keep, according to Maas.
“The parents and grandparents get into it as much as the kids do,” Maas said, regarding the “Make and Take” programs. “We really try to make everything interactive.”
Aside from the large-scale trains and family events, the show also includes dozens of exhibitors from all over the region, including approximately 11 new ones, according to organizers.
Attendees will witness clinics that cover anything from product demonstrations by manufacturers to steps on how to design a garden railroad, the event’s website says.
On May 4, patrons can also participate in a Connecticut rail train ride from Springfield Union Station to Hartford, and then back to Springfield. Sacerdote said people interested in the ride must gather at Union Station for check-in by 9:30 a.m. that day.
“It’s so much fun,” Sacerdote said. “There is collective ‘oohs and aahs’ because it looks like you’re floating 20 or 30 feet above water. And most of these folks have never ridden a train before, which is why we love it.”
As with the past two years, the Large Scale Train Show is all for a good cause. According to Sacerdote, money raised at the weekend event supports the Amherst Railway Society’s annual grant program along with a bevy of railroad and historical preservation projects across the country.
Some of the money raised has gone to libraries and scholarship funds for young students looking to pursue STEAM programs.
“Anything to do with railroads; as long as you’re a nonprofit, you’re eligible,” Maas said, regarding the grant money raised.
Since 1991, the Amherst Railway Society has donated almost $900,000 to railroad preservation and restoration projects all over the country, according to Sacerdote.
Readers looking to attend or learn more about the Large Scale Train Show can visit the event’s website: nelsts.org/index.php.
